Singapore building new SkillsFuture platform

Singapore’s Workforce Development Agency is planning a digital service to bring together SkillsFuture schemes.

Citizens will be able to apply for training schemes and check results through the platform. “WDA plans to implement a citizen-centric application system to facilitate online applications,” Poh Kheng Thong, Deputy Director, IT Division, WDA said at the Infocomm Development Authority’s industry briefing yesterday.

Citizens can already apply online for the SkillsFuture Study Award. But as the initiative expands, a single platform is required for citizens to access them all in one place. For instance, the SkillsFuture Fellowship to be launched this year and other upcoming schemes will be available on the platform.

“It’s not just one service but it’s a collection of services that we have put in place … to deliver it in such a manner that it will be useful and relevant to the citizens,” Poh told GovInsider.

Apart from applying for training schemes, there could also be services to help them find training. “it can potentially be linked to our course directory”, he said, for instance.

As new schemes are added, a number of agencies will need to work together to evaluate citizens’ applications. WDA is planning “an integrated management system at the backend to facilitate inter-agency collaboration in the processing of applications”, Poh said.

The new portal is expected to be launched in this financial year. WDA will be reorganised to form a new agency – SkillsFuture Singapore – by the end of this year.